Check out "Dear Christina" my first podcast
The first one might be a little bumpy but they will definitely get better. One thing is certain, I will not run out of my former student's success stories any time soon. They just keep rolling in! So I thought, why not feature them in a series of short podcasts? And now I am. I hope they inspire you as much as they inspire me.

July 20th: Deadline for Applications for the Fall Writer Mama Scholarship
The next available Writer Mama Scholarship is coming up for the August 20th Writing & Publishing The Short Stuff Class. Applications will only be accepted from Saturday, July 12th - Sunday, July 20th. One full scholarship will be granted with a value of $199.00. The scholarship application will be posted on Friday, July 11th in the Writer Mama Riffs Blog. Please feel free to post the badge in your blog or e-zine with a link to the Writer Mama blog so others can take advantage of this opportunity. (If you are planning on signing up for an August class, I wouldn't dally. They are filling up!)

September 1 - 30: The Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway
This giveaway was a huge success last year. You don't have to be a mama, just a writer. This year we'll have more books to give away and more thought-provoking career questions for you to answer to qualify to win. Participants last year commented on how much they learned both from answering the questions as well as from each other. Don't miss it! Please share the WM Back to School Giveaway badge with all your friends with a link to the Writer Mama blog!

September 22: Get Known Before the Book Deal Amazon spike on the first day of Fall
Order Get Known Before the Book Deal from Amazon on the Autumn Equinox and receive a great platform-development freebie! Details coming in the September issue. Please mark your calendar and tell all your friends. (More about why authors do stuff like this in September too, in case you are curious.)

October 22: Publication Date for Get Known Before the Book Deal
Lots of books talk about what to do once you become an author. No other books go into as much depth about how to position yourself to become an author before you have a book and even before you have a book deal! If you are local, I'll be speaking at the Wilsonville Public Library on November 16th. I'll also  be speaking about at the Willamette Writers Monthly Meeting in Portland on Tuesday, December 2nd. Final tour dates TBA in The Writer Mama blog.)

Purchase Writer Mama & Receive a Free List of Markets
But wait! Before we move on to my second book, Writer Mama is still selling strong. In fact, I  appreciate all the word-of mouth you  can put behind it, whether that means suggesting Writer Mama to your friends, your writing association, your writing conference bookseller or your local library. For the months of July and August only, there are two ways to get the list of free markets (because I know many of you own Writer Mama already): you can either purchase the book and e-mail me a copy of the receipt or you can  act on any of the word-of-mouth suggestions above. Let me know that you have helped spread the word and that you already own Writer Mama, and I'll send you the list of markets. Send all request e-mails on this topic to writermama2@earthlink.net.

That's enough about me. Shooting off some fireworks of her own lately, columnist Gigi Rosenberg is now writing for Parenting Magazine, among other national publicaitons. She has also been recently published in the Seal Press Anthology, The Maternal is Political, Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change, edited by Shari MacDonald Strong. Congratulations, Gigi! (You can order a copy of the book by clicking on it.)

Cindy Hudson will have some exciting news about her writing career in September. And don't forget, former columnist Abigail Green, now a columnist over at The Writer Mama e-zine, has stepped up to teach Personal Essays That Get Published. Abby is a skillful and widely published essayist and I know that anyone who takes her class is going to be so glad they did. (More info below or stop by Abby's blog Diary of a New Mom.)

There is a time to go into your cave and get your work done and then there is a time to crank up the excitement factor and reach out to others. Are you cranking up some excitement for your writing career? I sure hope so! If not, don't worry, there's still plenty of summer left.

In the writing-for-publication spirit,

Christina Katz
Editor and Publisher

P.S. You can always refer back to the Writers on the Rise blog, where these articles will be archived over the course of the upcoming month.
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